Getting hurt in a major accident can turn your life upside-down. You may need to be hospitalized, leaving you out of work until you can recover fully from your injuries and lacking the time or energy to battle with insurers. Even if sufficient insurance coverage of your injuries is available, it’s not always easy to get insurers to pay the full amount you’re owed. Hence, you find yourself in a situation to find the best personal injury lawyer.
For these and many other reasons, it’s important to find a personal injury attorney you can trust to represent you in a claim for damages. With so many injury attorneys in California, it can seem overwhelming to choose the right one to represent you. Below, you’ll find some tips for hiring a personal injury lawyer to ensure you get the best result possible from your personal injury lawsuit.
Five tips on choosing an injury attorney
- Get referrals you can trust: Friends and family members who have filed California personal injury lawsuits can serve as great resources for you when choosing an attorney after your accident. The Los Angeles County Bar Association, as well as many other local Bar associations, offer referral services. After you receive the name of a potential personal injury lawyer, be sure to read any reviews that past clients have posted online.
- Make sure your attorney is a good fit: Even if an attorney is qualified, it doesn’t mean they’ll always be the right one for you. It’s important that you find your attorney easy to talk to since you’ll be interacting with them regularly. Interview each attorney to find out whether they’re the right fit.
- Get an evaluation of your claim from the attorney: While interviewing your attorney, ask them to evaluate your claim. It’s important that the attorney you choose provides a realistic assessment of your claim, pointing out weaknesses along with strengths. It may not be wise to hire a lawyer simply based on which attorney predicts the biggest damages award for your claim.
- Ask about who will handle your case and answer any questions you may have: In many larger firms, you may interview a senior partner when choosing a firm, even though your case will be handed off to a junior associate whom you’ve never met. Find out which attorney would handle your claim or answer any questions you may have as your case progresses, and make sure you get to meet them, too.
- Find out how the attorney charges for their services: Many personal injury attorneys follow a contingency model, where the attorney will not be paid for their services directly, but instead will be paid only when they win on behalf of their client. Ask whether your case will be taken on contingency and how the attorney handles filing fees and other costs that arise during the course of your case.
If you need help seeking the legal damages to which you’re entitled after a car accident in Southern California, contact the seasoned, determined, and professional Glendale personal injury lawyers McReynolds Vardanyan LLP for a free consultation at 818-855-2115.